I did more comparisons at least in one area.. of ZL16 vs ZL17.. this time, i think ZL16 was sharper.. if i swipe back and forth it just seems a tad sharper, things come into focus better.. i also then tried ZL16 vs ZL16(with ZL18 airport areas).. same difference..

 

Is this common or maybe more rare.. this has me thinking of just going ZL16 with everything.. this test was at 2500 feet or so. (AGL or 3600 ASL)

Go to openstreetmap.org and search for your airport. e.g.

 

http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/237594029#map=14/52.1631/20.9636

 

If it comes up with a boundary, it's inside OSM. If it isn't, you can add it from their website.

Thanks.. i see now..  i tried it with KPIT.. no boundary.. i assume you need to register an account then the ability to add a boundary appears?  edit: signed in, but not really seeing this type of ability offhand.

 

I tried several others like KORD, KLAX, i dont see boundaries even for these bigger ones.

Depends on your texture settings in X-Plane. Things start to become blurry no matter what the soon when you drop the texture resolution. But I've never seen a case where ZL16 is better than ZL17, but I generally stick to ZL16

Depends on your texture settings in X-Plane. Things start to become blurry no matter what the soon when you drop the texture resolution. But I've never seen a case where ZL16 is better than ZL17, but I generally stick to ZL16

I have textures set to maximum.. i use fraps for the screenshot.. maybe thats the weak link..

 

Just to confirm, on the openstreet thing.. does ortho4xp need set to OSM to be able to do the airport surroundings at ZL18.. or can you leave it on Bing and it somehow does it?

Here is the 16 bing vs 17 bing (via fraps)

 

I think you may need to get closer to the ground in order to see the difference between, in your case, ZL16 and ZL17.

It always grabs airport data from Openstreetmap irrespective of your orthoimagery provider

Cool numbers. Still looking doable for me. Hardly anyone is flying the whole world. But let's assume someone wants Europe and the US/Canada and maybe Australia, another one needs all of Asia and Africa and another one all of North and South America. All these combinations are doable for sure in ZL16 with major towns and cities in ZL 17 and also all in ZL 17 if you are willing to buy a few big disks and sometimes swap them. 

The problem, as I see it, is NOT the space required. The problem is there is no universal source of good Ortho4XP images for the whole world. There is not even a good source for Australia. I am having an awful time trying to find good data for the small area around YBBN (Brisbane). I am coming to the view that for my particular area it is better to use the default scenery, NOT Ortho4XP. I have a few small airfields and areas where Ortho4XP has generated brilliant scenery, but this is far from typical.

 

I am guessing the USA and perhaps Europe might be different, but Australia (so far) has very poor sources.

 

 

The problem is there is no universal source of good Ortho4XP images for the whole world.

 

Absolutely correct. I still believe that good data is existing though, albeit not as a source for easy download. The problem therefore is to find it and secure proper rights to it. That's why I am advocating a joint and professional effort in doing so. Easier said then done, I know. But the interest is there. And where's a will there's a way.  

A related but different question regarding use of Ortho4XP:

 

I just created about 50 tiles around the US with Ortho4XP which work fine. However, I didn't create the overlay when they were originally batched. Can I now "batch create" only the overlays for all my completed tiles? If so, how?

Not sure that it works but you can try the following: check skip download and convert in the main window, check use existing mesh and build overlay in the batch window and leave create masks unchecked. It may recreate the tiles but as all orthophotos and terrain files are already there the process should be rather quick. 

Not sure that it works but you can try the following: check skip download and convert in the main window, check use existing mesh and build overlay in the batch window and leave create masks unchecked. It may recreate the tiles but as all orthophotos and terrain files are already there the process should be rather quick. 

Wouldnt you just open the map, use shift to select multiple tiles in need.. then come back to the regular screen and click the mesh overlay button to create them?  (that way only that step is done)

 

 

Wouldnt you just open the map, use shift to select multiple tiles in need.. then come back to the regular screen and click the mesh overlay button to create them?

 

I tried that but it only generated the overlay for the last clicked tile. 

Another question for everyone.. is it enough to just change the ortho4xp.cfg file in the tile you want to change from say 18 to 16 ZL (where both sets of files already exist) to swap back and forth.. or is it necessary to run the batch process again, selecting the ZL you want to switch to?

 

 

to swap back and forth

 

Not sure that I understand what you want to achieve by saying "swap". The program creates one tile based on the chosen ZL. You could however make the same tile with different ZL's and store them in separate folders. 

Not sure that I understand what you want to achieve by saying "swap". The program creates one tile based on the chosen ZL. You could however make the same tile with different ZL's and store them in separate folders. 

 

Example.. i downloaded a tile at ZL16.. then later on i went and downloaded the same tile (without deleting the original in the ortho tiles folder) for level 18.. now if you look in the tile folders, under textures.. you see Both sets of dds files.. some for 16, some for 18.. and now after having done the 18 last, the config file for this tile shows default=18..

 

I thought maybe it was as simple as just changing the 18 to 16 to switch back to 16.. however, if i goto the map, choose that same tile (at 16), hit batch, its going through conversion processes, despite both files appearing in the same folder at the same time, so there must be more to it than just changing the cfg file.

 

(initially i did just rename the folder and put like ZL18 at the end of one and ZL16 at the end of the other, but doing this, then control clicks on the map dont junction link the folder in the custom scenery folder correctly.. it expects the original folder name i think, therefore requiring a manual junction link creation.

 

Its nice to just use the map to disable areas for testing etc.

I cant remember if this was said .. is there a way to just kill autogen trees but keep buildings? (in the yOrtho4XP_Overlays folder)..

 

I'm beginning to think that some of this autogen really kills the real life imagery immersion/effect.